matta
Well-known member
Hey Guys,
I thought this might be of interest to alot peeps who are sitting on the
fence about building a Green Pre, Newbies looking for a first time project
or just anyone interested in my thoughts/results.
I love the Green and I am on Green #4 right now. The first 2 were
?prototypes? on home etched PCB?s which I received from Peter C (Many thanks
Oom Piet!) and needed some basic work to get up and running which was a
great way to test my unknown DIY skills.
From there I went on to build 2 more from quality components like Rubycons
and Wima?s Caps on the silk-screened boards he has available now.
I have been shooting out these little guys in my modest home studio against
what I have and in the ?clarity class? it wins hands down against the 002R
and Soundcraft 328 Console I own, though the Soundcraft did have a musical
peak in the midrange that was quite usable, more so that the ?dull? ?flat?
sound of the 002R.
First thoughts and comments were that the Green is pretty flat... no over
emphasised freqs. Tests were confirmed by sweeping it with signal generator
and scope and it remained pretty flat up to around 15-20K.
Last night I took the Green round to another studio in town to try it up
against some other pres and this is where the fun starts...
For those that might not be aware of the Peter C Green Pre it is Mic Pre based
around the A*M*E*K Mozart /9*0*9*8 topology. A top quality, simple design
(uses basic IC Op amps) which is an easy build even for a complete Newbie,
which is what I was when I started out just a few months ago.
Anyways back to the studio...
So I get there with my little pair in my customized 2U rack (read plain
metal case with holes) and proudly show them off to the house engineer. He
was sceptical to say the least... I gave him the run down of the features
(66db of Gain, Phantom Power, Phase and High Pass filter), showed him the
insides (I built mine sans the metering section, which is optional) and was
ready to give it a go.
He remained sceptical and so decided to shoot it out against a Mackie... a
Mackie! Anyways I went along. We tracked spoken word with both male and
female vocals reciting passages from the Yamaha sound reinforcement manual
(which was just too funny) and then blasted away on a trumpet to test
transient response. The mics used were a pair of SDC Rode?s.
Well the Mackie was blown away and I mean BLOWN away. On vocals it sounded
muddy and undefined with some sonic weirdness in the lower mids
whereas the Green remained clean and even across the board (neither pres
uses a high pass filter/notch). It really showed up on the trumpet track
where the Mackie just crapped out as the headroom was not all that great
plus the transient response paled when compared to the Green.
Okay Green 1 Mackie 0.... I had now got the ears of the engineer (and 2
other engineers who stopped by).
Next he hauled out a Focusrite Green Channel Strip. Now to see what my Green
would really be able to do... The Focusrite Green in no Red or ISA series
but it is still seen by some as a mid-level to high-end piece of gear and
this studio paid a fair bit of cash a few years ago for 2 of these strips.
The topology is similar in that both are IC op amp designs and
transformer ess and so I felt it would be comparing apples with apples.
This time we focussed purely on spoken word, mainly female. The results were
quite amazing.
These pre?s sounded much closer together in the same ball park as each
other but my Green still had a smoother and clearer high end, which was a
little blocked up on the Focusrite.
The tests were done blind wherever possible and in the end my Green came out
tops, 2 out of 3, the engineer who uses the Focusrites preferred his, but by
his own admission it was prob. due to the fact he was ?used to that sound?.
At the end of the session the engineer turned round and asked me to order a
pair of boards and PSU from Peter so they can get a pair.
The DIY audio community wins a game on the Pro Audio away field!
But seriously, not enough can be said about these great little preamps. Kev
Ross along with countless others have sung their praises and I guess I?m
doing nothing new, though I am trying to give you insight into my real world
scenario.
I will at some point build another 8 of these as I think you can always find
a place for these guys and even if you just build one or 2 I?m sure they
will remain practical for years to come in certain studio applications.
They are easy to build, cheap and sound great. I could build 16 for the
price of one of those Focusrite?s, okay so the strip has a compressor and EQ,
but you could always build a bunch of Calrecs and What compressors ;-)
For those keen to find out more about the Green check out the Meta here:
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=5150
It has all the info you need to get started, and if you don?t find your
answer in there then feel free to post here and someone will help you.
Cheers
Matt
I thought this might be of interest to alot peeps who are sitting on the
fence about building a Green Pre, Newbies looking for a first time project
or just anyone interested in my thoughts/results.
I love the Green and I am on Green #4 right now. The first 2 were
?prototypes? on home etched PCB?s which I received from Peter C (Many thanks
Oom Piet!) and needed some basic work to get up and running which was a
great way to test my unknown DIY skills.
From there I went on to build 2 more from quality components like Rubycons
and Wima?s Caps on the silk-screened boards he has available now.
I have been shooting out these little guys in my modest home studio against
what I have and in the ?clarity class? it wins hands down against the 002R
and Soundcraft 328 Console I own, though the Soundcraft did have a musical
peak in the midrange that was quite usable, more so that the ?dull? ?flat?
sound of the 002R.
First thoughts and comments were that the Green is pretty flat... no over
emphasised freqs. Tests were confirmed by sweeping it with signal generator
and scope and it remained pretty flat up to around 15-20K.
Last night I took the Green round to another studio in town to try it up
against some other pres and this is where the fun starts...
For those that might not be aware of the Peter C Green Pre it is Mic Pre based
around the A*M*E*K Mozart /9*0*9*8 topology. A top quality, simple design
(uses basic IC Op amps) which is an easy build even for a complete Newbie,
which is what I was when I started out just a few months ago.
Anyways back to the studio...
So I get there with my little pair in my customized 2U rack (read plain
metal case with holes) and proudly show them off to the house engineer. He
was sceptical to say the least... I gave him the run down of the features
(66db of Gain, Phantom Power, Phase and High Pass filter), showed him the
insides (I built mine sans the metering section, which is optional) and was
ready to give it a go.
He remained sceptical and so decided to shoot it out against a Mackie... a
Mackie! Anyways I went along. We tracked spoken word with both male and
female vocals reciting passages from the Yamaha sound reinforcement manual
(which was just too funny) and then blasted away on a trumpet to test
transient response. The mics used were a pair of SDC Rode?s.
Well the Mackie was blown away and I mean BLOWN away. On vocals it sounded
muddy and undefined with some sonic weirdness in the lower mids
whereas the Green remained clean and even across the board (neither pres
uses a high pass filter/notch). It really showed up on the trumpet track
where the Mackie just crapped out as the headroom was not all that great
plus the transient response paled when compared to the Green.
Okay Green 1 Mackie 0.... I had now got the ears of the engineer (and 2
other engineers who stopped by).
Next he hauled out a Focusrite Green Channel Strip. Now to see what my Green
would really be able to do... The Focusrite Green in no Red or ISA series
but it is still seen by some as a mid-level to high-end piece of gear and
this studio paid a fair bit of cash a few years ago for 2 of these strips.
The topology is similar in that both are IC op amp designs and
transformer ess and so I felt it would be comparing apples with apples.
This time we focussed purely on spoken word, mainly female. The results were
quite amazing.
These pre?s sounded much closer together in the same ball park as each
other but my Green still had a smoother and clearer high end, which was a
little blocked up on the Focusrite.
The tests were done blind wherever possible and in the end my Green came out
tops, 2 out of 3, the engineer who uses the Focusrites preferred his, but by
his own admission it was prob. due to the fact he was ?used to that sound?.
At the end of the session the engineer turned round and asked me to order a
pair of boards and PSU from Peter so they can get a pair.
The DIY audio community wins a game on the Pro Audio away field!
But seriously, not enough can be said about these great little preamps. Kev
Ross along with countless others have sung their praises and I guess I?m
doing nothing new, though I am trying to give you insight into my real world
scenario.
I will at some point build another 8 of these as I think you can always find
a place for these guys and even if you just build one or 2 I?m sure they
will remain practical for years to come in certain studio applications.
They are easy to build, cheap and sound great. I could build 16 for the
price of one of those Focusrite?s, okay so the strip has a compressor and EQ,
but you could always build a bunch of Calrecs and What compressors ;-)
For those keen to find out more about the Green check out the Meta here:
http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=5150
It has all the info you need to get started, and if you don?t find your
answer in there then feel free to post here and someone will help you.
Cheers
Matt